8 seniors lead the way for Bruins

August 30, 2013 10:26 pm

Front-line hitter Jordyn Keys spikes the ball during a pre-season practice at Brookings-Harbor High School. Keys is one of eight returning seniors for the Lady Bruins’ program this year. The Pilot/Jef Hatch

The Brookings-Harbor High School volleyball team has an interesting mix of experience and inexperience driving it at the same time in the 2013 season.

The experience comes in the form of eight returning seniors on the team, while the inexperience — at least at BHHS — comes from first-year head coach Samantha Greenlee.

Greenlee served as the junior varsity coach in the 2012 season, and while she has limited experience as a head coach, she brings big ideas to the table.

“We are working really hard on communication this year,” Greenlee said. “We have talented girls. We have the skills. It is a matter of fine tuning those skills and giving them that trust in their ability.”

“I would like to see them have some success in league games,” she added. “We need to go out believing in ourselves and give everything we can.”

For the seniors, they feel that their time together gives them a competitive edge over the other teams in league.

“We work really hard as a team because we’re all seniors and we know each other really well,” senior defensive specialist Shawndee Hatcher said. “It gives us a good advantage when it comes to winning league games because we have a lot of experience together.”

Fellow senior Megan Strain agreed.

“We’ve all grown up together and we’re really close,” she said. “That will help us work better together and win league games.”

The Bruins are following Greenlee’s prescription for success by dedicating more time to conditioning than in previous years and Greenlee has a strict policy on team unity.

“Volleyball is such a team-committed sport and I’ve noticed in the past that when things start to go wrong, we break down into six individuals,” she explained. “It needs to be a team connection all the way through the game.”

Greenlee is assisted by Kelly Garvin who will run the JV team as well as assist on varsity.

The Lady Bruins first game is at 5 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 3, at Siuslaw High School.